In his sci-fi novel _Histoire comique des États et Empires de la Lune_ (A Fictitious History of the States and Empires of the Moon), the first part of _L’Autre Monde_ (The Other World) posthumously published in 1657, French author Cyrano de Bergerac (Hercule Savinien CYRANO 1619-1655, Paris area) describes various curiosities that could be interpreted as modern inventions. For instance, books are recorded in clock-like machines. To listen to one chapter, you turn the needle on it. “À l’ouverture de la boîte, je trouvai dedans un je ne sais quoi de métal quasi tout semblable à nos horloges, plein d’un nombre infini de petits ressorts et de machines imperceptibles. C’est un livre à la vérité, mais c’est un livre miraculeux qui n’a ni feuillets ni caractères ; enfin c’est un livre où, pour apprendre, les yeux sont inutiles ; on n’a besoin que d’oreilles. Quand quelqu’un donc souhaite lire, il bande, avec une grande quantité de toutes sortes de clefs, cette machine, puis il tourne l’aiguille sur le chapitre qu’il désire écouter, et au même temps il sort de cette noix [sic] comme de la bouche d’un homme, ou d’un instrument de musique, tous les sons distincts et différents qui servent, entre les grands lunaires, à l’expression du langage.” (Chapter IV) = [my quick, free and simplified translation] On opening the box, I found in it I don’t know actually what, that looked like our clocks, replete with small springs and hardly visible machinery. Actually it’s a book, but a miraculous one without leaves or types; well, it’s a book that doesn’t require your eyes to read it, but your ears. When you want to read one, you wind up this clockwork with all sorts of keys, then you turn the needle to the chapter you want to listen to. Then comes out of this a human-like voice that utters all the sounds of the Lunars’ language or the musical sounds (of their language on the lute). In a previous chapter, the author explains that the Lunars can communicate either with speech or by playing what they want to say on lutes. This passage is obviously inspired by what the anonymous Spanish monk wrote about Filipinos circa 1600. The original of this report is lost, but its French translation was published by Mechisédech THÉVENOT in his _Relations de divers voyages curieux_ (1663) : “Cutiapé ... ils le touchent si adroitement, qu’ils lui font dire ce qu’ils veulent, & c’est une chose avérée qu’ils se parlent, & se disent les uns aux autres ce qu’ils veulent par le moyen de cet instrument” = Kudyapî / kutyapî ... they play it so skillfully that they can make it say what they want, and it’s a proven fact that they (can) talk among themselves, and say what they want to one another by means of this instrument.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 09:08:23 +0000
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